This is a good discussion.
I would argue one should never do any post-maintenance flight into IMC, and that is what I do (as well as no passengers other than my A&P/IA) but many would say that is impractical for work done away from one’s base.
One Greek TB20 pilot would have a “story” to tell after a major avionics upgrade in a top firm in Germany, and that wasn’t an avionics config…
Yes, I agree. What bothers me is that I prepared the flight perfectly and did a thorough check of the cockpit. And the mechanic who did the Avionics check had also warned me that he had changed the settings. Still I didn’t see it.
I was not critical. What I always do and never forget is to set the heading bug in the direction of flight and since the SID is displayed in the PFD and was mostly straight to 4000, it was no big deal.
But I’ll update my (smartCHECK) checklist and include the Nav source.
The thing is that every time you plan on using a navigation equipment you need to check that it is properly selected, tuned and identified (if applicable). That should be part of the departure briefing. You cannot just rely on the fact that you always use GPS1, because that is going to bite you hard one day, irrespective of maintenance.
I did not write that I made a mistake because I thought that I made everything right. It is completely counter productive to lead the discussion this way. I wrote that I find it interesting how I did that mistake although I did a good preflight briefing. And then you write that a “mistake should not be made”. Thank you, but I knew that ;-)
Alexis, your example of post-maintenance gotcha is very poor. You need to check your NAV source multiple times during a flight, including prior to departure and approach. What you experienced had nothing to do with maintenance.
I think that a better example of required post-maintenance checks wrt avionics may be for example checking that your radios are still configured for 8.33 KHz. You will find out soon enough when you start dialing frequencies and find you need less knob-twisting than usual, but if you do not know where to find the relevant menu, you may go through some stressful moments. A short while ago I sent one my radios in for maintenance to Garmin. When I got it back it had been switched to 25 KHz, but fortunately they had not changed any of the other settings, at least that I could tell, because everything else worked, no crosses on the MFD, PFD…
I also seem to remember someone mentioned that the CDI or GS was deflecting the wrong way following maintenance.
I did not say that it was a mistake done by maintenance, but clearly stated that I made a mistake
I did not say that it was a mistake done by maintenance, but clearly stated that I made a mistake
The topic is “Post-maintenance check” not “Mistakes I made flying back from maintenance”
Maybe this is an example of a post maintenance checklist. It is not that different to a post maintenance checklist referred to earlier for checking for mechanical cockups.
I don’t think many GA pilots have a comprehensive checklist for the avionics config.
One thing I noticed on a commuter jet operation in the USA is that the pilots, after a fast change of crew, were required to power cycle the cockpit after the previous crew left. That was possibly just a partial solution because I am sure many settings in the cockpit (Honeywell Primus?) are saved anyway.
Peter wrote:
I don’t think many GA pilots have a comprehensive checklist for the avionics config.
I do have the GPS/VLOC setting on my before departure checklist. Precisely because that can bite you hard.
Maybe this is an example of a post maintenance checklist.
I’ll make one this week, for the whole plane.
